1. Field of the Invention
The invention is related to a method and apparatus for forming marks on semiconductor devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since the production volume of a semiconductor device is enormously large, a drop in the production yield caused by defects can affect the profitability substantially. Therefore, the analysis of the cause of defects, i.e., the analysis of the locations where defects are occurring is of primary importance to a manufacturer.
In the fault analysis of semiconductor devices, physical processes are applied to fault locations to make the observation and analysis of fault locations easier. Thus, it is necessary to mark the fault locations prior to applications of physical processes.
However, this marking or mark forming has hitherto been made by physically damaging semiconductor devices by means of thermal energy delivered by laser rays. As a result, once this marking is done, the electrical characteristics of the semiconductor devices change and it makes it impossible to repeat the measurement of the electrical characteristics. In other words, it presents a problem that it is impossible to obtain efficiently the multi-faceted fault mechanism.